my friend has Enve clinchers about 3 months old. i think the model is ses 3.4 but can't confirm that atm. Clinchers anyway. Descended Mt. Baw Baw in Victoria , Australia yesterday and punctured numerous times and noticing the rim was extremly hot when repairing. Anyway at the end of the day the front brake tracks have rippled from the ride. has anyone experienced this as he/we are a little confused with where to go with this. back to the local bike shop or contact enve direct?any help appreciated.p.s. this isn't a slam on enve at all as we're guessing it's a rare problem.

Highly unlikely to be the 3.4, but earlier Enve/Edge clinchers had this problem.Your LBS should be a good first stop, but Enve have excellent customer service, and have dealt with similar cases quickly and without hassle.If rims are getting that hot your friend should look at how they descend, and how much time they spend on the brakes. Far better to coast, and brake harder for brief periods going into corners instead of dragging the brakes to descend slowly.

a wheel should be able to cope with any type of braking, saying that people who have issues should look at thier riding style is a stupid comment. Bit like buying a crank and being told not to pedal to hard.

Sorry bikedoc but I disagree. Some equipment requires caution. On major descents any rider would be foolish to ignore best practices when it comes to braking. I would add to ozzrider's comment that if you need to scrub off some speed take turns between front and rear brake to allow each to cool. I agree wheel failure from braking is inexcusable but the concern would be a tire blow-off from overheating. Seen it happen on solid, reliable wheels - guy almost died - cause he didn't know how to brake properly. Seen other guys crash because they dragged their brakes and got the tire so hard they couldn't corner on a slightly rough surface. Tire didn't blow off but same result.

IMO carbon clinchers should never be used real mountains. Just asking for trouble.

@bikedocThere are a number of reasons for not dragging your brakes on long descents, Mr Gib has outlined a few. If you are using latex tubes you could suffer a blowout with aluminium rims, you glaze your brake pads reducing their efficiency and stopping power, and I have seen riders shred bake pads on one long descent, rendering them useless and cutting short their days riding.Good practice when descending is sitting up and using wind resistance to help slow you if going a bit faster than you want to, and also scrubbing off speed before corners, NOT HOLDING BRAKES all the way down a long descent. I ride pretty big hills on carbon tubulars, and being aware of the shortcomings of your equipment makes you a better cyclist. Many manufacturers, Madfiber for one, held off on carbon clinchers due to braking issues.Just as a novice wouldn't tackle big hills with a 53/39 chainring and 11-23 cassette, choosing wheels according to your riding style and terrain is sensible.

This is really good advice. It's kind of rare that a descent is so hairy that you have to ride the brakes to not overshoot curves. It's amazing how fast you can corner when you know what you are doing.

Adding to Oz's post. In a total pinch though if you are catching cars or for some reason have to brake for an extended amount of time I would suggest "abs'ing" basically not giving the chance of the rim to build up constant heat.

Aside from the rim shape, if the sticker were black it is most likely they were the new 3.4 clinchers. The older 45 clinchers had white stickers.

I had a pair of 45s warp and I have always been ultra careful with braking. Some people are very anti carbon clinchers for this reason. Me, like Ozrider, I still think they are great wheels in the right circumstances.For instance, whist I've not ridden BawBaw, I know its a seriously steep climb. I don't think I'd choose to ride carbon clinchers on that road.

ENVE has excellent customer service but you will need to work with you LBS and Monza.Let us know which rims they are.

hope you have good luck with your rims, ENVE are a top notch firm and your LBS and ENVE will take care of you.I agree with the comments above and agree we need to learn to ride with awareness and within the capability of the components we are on.

IMO carbon clinchers should never be used real mountains. Just asking for trouble.

Unless I'm racing, I totally agree with this.

And even then, dropping down some hills in a race I was damn glad the testosterone was flowing - as I doubt I'd go that gung-ho if were just out training.

Ozrider wrote:

I ride pretty big hills on carbon tubulars, and being aware of the shortcomings of your equipment makes you a better cyclist.

Tubs are a little different mate.

Plus it's not Baw Baw's length, rather it's gradient from the top to the gantry that is the issue. Not sure Perth has something on the same crazy level Baw Baw is at.

For what it's worth, I had my 3.4's in for my first time up Falls Creek 2 weeks ago. Dropping down wasn't too bad, but at the same time I still swapped wheels for my Zonda's the next day. Simply because it was my first time in the Vic Alps and wanted that little bit more braking power going down 30km descents that I had never tackled before.

Not what they say at all. They have no experience at all of it but are merely reporting retailers comments.

Quote:

The retailers I spoke to noted that what they aren’t seeing returned are Enve’s new SES rims and Zipp’s Firecrest Carbon Clinchers. While I can’t speak to the new SES carbon clincher (I don’t even know anyone who owns a set), I can say that I’ve taken both the Firecrest 303s and 404s down Las Flores, and though at a certain point the brakes howled like a dog for a full moon, braking remained consistent and the wheels remain perfectly true.

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